Since Pitchfork's conception in November of 1995, I have been waiting patiently for the day when we would be able to bring you this feature. I've been wondering for years what our #1 favorite album of the 1990s would turn out to be. Then, that despicable Spin issued their Top 100 list of the decade's "best" albums-- we knew we had to do it right.

Our list was totaled in the fairest way I could think of-- I would send an e-mail out to all our reviewers and ask them to turn in a list of their personal Top 100 albums of the 1990s, ranked in order from #100 to #1. I specified that the list should not concern what the writers felt was the "most important," "b-est" or "most influential" recordings of the decade, instead that it should be their favorite albums-- the albums they most enjoyed listening to. All writers were encouraged to participate, but creating a list of 100 albums of any kind is not an easy thing to do. In the end, more than half of us got involved and worked our asses off until our lists were exactly (or as close as possible to) how we wanted them. (That's how cool we are.) Brent DiCrescenzo did us all a great favor by figuring out a fair points system and compiling all our lists into a singular Top 100 that would represent the participants' favorite albums of the decade. And here it finally is.